The present disclosure, for example, relates to creating preferred home automation settings for security and/or automation systems in a building for approved guests.
Security and automation systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication and functional features such as monitoring, communication, notification, and/or others. These systems may be capable of supporting communication with a user through a communication connection or a system management action.
When a guest wishes stay in a location for a short time or at a rental location, there is not a way for the guest to set up preferred settings prior to his or her arrival. Also, when a homeowner wishes to allow a guest to access his home in his absence, the homeowner must physically provide a key to the guest, which may raise security issues should the guest lose or fail to return the key. In the alternative, the homeowner may provide the guest with an access code to the home, which the guest must keep track of in order to gain access to the home, but which may also present security issues should the guest retain or distribute that code. Some home security systems may allow for creation of guest access codes, but may require that the homeowner both manually activate the code prior to the guest's arrival, and deactivate the guest code after the guest's departure. Additionally, these guest access codes may be limited to providing access to a door to the home or other rented building. There is lacking a method by which a guest may be granted access both to a home and to one or more components of a security and/or automation system associated with the home, automatically and remotely, and a method by which that access may be automatically revoked at the conclusion of the guest's stay, without the need for direct homeowner intervention. Also there is a need for a method by which the guest may set up preferred home automation settings prior to his arrival at the vacation rental.